Posts

Cash Rate – No change

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 1.50%.

Yesterday we heard that retail sales increased by a better than expected 0.4% in April (against an anticipated 0.3%) and company profits rose 5.9% in the March quarter, influenced in particular by a 11.0% increase in mining profits. Tomorrow we should see Australia’s GDP figures for the March quarter lift by 0.8% or 0.9%. Notwithstanding these positive results the RBA remains comfortable to remain on the sidelines, possibly until well into 2019, until we see an increase to both our inflation rate (currently 1.9%) and wages growth.

For more information, or if you would like a free review of your residential, commercial or SMSF loans against other competitive products in the market please contact Peter, David or Simon via this email, our phone: (03) 9882 2500, or visit www.firstpointgroup.com.au

Cash Rate – No change

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has just announced it will maintain the official cash rate at 1.50%.

The RBA is confident Australia’s economy will be boosted this year by stronger LNG exports as new projects come onstream. In addition, non-mining investment will likely rise solidly, buoyed by population growth, low interest rates and dynamic global economic activity. However, sluggish wage growth, declining productivity and high levels of household debt will continue to weigh on the economy. GDP growth of 2.3 percent for 2017 is further evidence the RBA’s expectations for a pick up to 3.25% this year will be challenging.

We continue to believe that the RBA will maintain the current cash rate until wages growth and core inflation are on a sustained upward trend. This is not expected until later this year or early 2019.

For more information, or if you would like a free review of your residential, commercial or SMSF loans against other competitive products in the market please contact Peter, David or Simon via this email, our phone: (03) 9882 2500, or visit www.firstpointgroup.com.au